Every time has its heroes
Recently, the President and Supreme Commander-in-Chief awarded a large group of military personnel. In our case, we will not talk about this at all, but about a few other fighters who also fought, fought completely selflessly and bravely, and eventually won. I don’t know how it will be about awards, but perhaps the main award here is the nationwide recognition of their feat.
On June 24, yes, yes, exactly on the day when half the country was sausage thanks to the Wagners, an oil depot was on fire in Voronezh.
The tank caught fire (I can’t call it a tank) with aviation kerosene. 5 (FIVE) THOUSAND TONS!
For understanding, I will give a picture of the tank farm from above.
Just so that everyone can take and count with a finger how many there are tanks was. Although they were smaller. And how it could have exploded in the end, and what a catastrophe could have happened.
As a result, those who arranged it all dispersed, scattered, and the fire began to destroy the kerosene. A column of black smoke was visible from anywhere in the city, queues for gasoline immediately lined up at gas stations. Just in case.
And Voronezh firefighters from all over the city rushed to the left bank, where kerosene was burning.
For reference: in the millionth city of Voronezh, about 200 firefighters take over the service every day at 18 points scattered throughout the city. Given that firefighters serve every three days, we understand that there are no more than a thousand of them in the city, including mechanics, repairmen, quartermasters and storekeepers.
297 people fought in the fire. That is, a third of the entire composition of the fire departments of the city. We understand that they were called from the house, from wherever possible, because a person cannot endure 12 hours of fiery hell (namely, so much they extinguished the fire). Rest is needed, at least minimally.
As they said in the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the region, over the past 30 years it was the most difficult case.
Moreover, putting out the burning tank was not as easy as it seems. The tank, where 5 tons of kerosene were burning, gave off so much heat that extinguishing caused many difficulties.
From the tank there was such an upward current of hot air upwards that the attempt to extinguish with foam failed. The foam was simply blown to the sides, and it did not fall where it burned. The attack with foam did not work out, so it was decided to extinguish with water. Crews with fire monitors of high water consumption went into battle.
By that time, the situation was complicated by the fact that the burning of kerosene heated the atmosphere around in the truest sense of the word. Everything was heated, including neighboring tanks with other types of fuel.
That's why the firefighters built an echeloned defense: the first echelon flooded the burning tank with water, and the second echelon watered the neighboring tanks to prevent fuel from igniting in them and calculations with the first echelon vehicles!
Eyewitnesses said that fire trucks 70 meters from the tanks melted plastic in the cabs and bubbled paint. Water from hand barrels did not even reach the walls of the burning reservoir, it evaporated along the way, everything was so hot. In general, aviation kerosene is a very evil topic in this regard.
Its main difference from gasoline is that it does not burn like gasoline, practically with an explosion, but does it much more slowly and evenly, releasing more heat.
But the firefighters did their job clearly, most importantly, they did not allow the fire to spread to neighboring tanks. What could have happened in this case, it is probably not worth talking about. The oil depot used to be practically outside the city, but that was when it was being built. And today it is a dynamically developing area in terms of development, through which the M4 highway from Rostov to Moscow practically passes.
The results are stunning:
It took more than 5 hours to extinguish 000 tons of aviation kerosene in a burning tank.
67 tons of foam concentrate and 65 (sixty-five thousand) tons of water were used to put out the fire! 000 meters of laid sleeves.
The crew of 33 vehicles and 2 fire trains fought the fire. A total of 297 people were involved.
7 people received heat strokes, but not a single one left the territory of the tank farm. After providing medical assistance, all firefighters returned to duty.
The losses of the calculations of the Ministry of Emergency Situations amounted to 15 special heat-reflecting suits and an articulated lift, which failed due to prolonged thermal exposure. One of the two from which water was thrown into the tank.
And here I just want to express my great human gratitude and gratitude to the firefighters who prevented the disaster.
Professionalism and precise fulfillment of one's duty - and the city can really sleep peacefully.
In addition to firefighters, we must also say a big thank you to the employees of Rosvodokanal of the city. If fire brigades are troops, then RVC is the rear that provided the troops with ammunition. Do not forget that it was Saturday, when only shifts on duty go to work. How many employees were again called to provide fire brigades with water, I personally do not know, but it was that the increased pressure in the lines was kept by all means until the end of the extinguishing.
Moreover, to be honest, Voronezh in terms of water supply is not ideal at all. So to transfer such masses of water to one area of the city along our highways - this was a task at the level of supplying ammunition during the repulse of an enemy offensive. But - they did it. But literally 10-20 minutes of stopping the water supply - and that's it. And the city began to have specific troubles, to say the least.
There was another extraordinary move, but this is already on the part of the mayor's office, most likely. From all over the city, watering trucks were driven to the fire site, which were used to refuel those fire trucks that worked in those places where there were no points of connection to the water supply network. Fortunately, the station for filling tanks with water was not very far away.
Naturally, moving around the city, I watched sprinklers rushing at maximum speed. And he noticed with approval that the people gave way to them.
Three hundred firefighters and their assistants defended the city of Voronezh from fire and ecological catastrophe (that would have been if diesel fuel had been blown) - it was.
I, like many other residents, would very much like to see our firefighters among the awardees. The main thing is that we know how difficult the task was, we all saw the results of their battle with our own eyes, and for us, the locals, it’s just enough to know that our safety is in the hands of professionals.
However, there is hope that Governor Gusev will come up with something and figure it out in order to celebrate the feat of the Voronezh firefighters.
And so - just the deepest human gratitude to everyone who fought on June 24, defending Voronezh from fire.
To all those who read from other cities - well, you can envy in a white way. We have such men working in the Ministry of Emergency Situations ... Although they are not pampered with orders.
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